Resumo de The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls

In "The Glass Castle" Jeannette Walls describes her life with her family. Her father, Rex Walls, is an intelligent self-taught man, but an alcoholic. Her mother, Rose Mary, is an artist and a dreamer: she would rather paint a picture that would last a lifetime than cook a meal that is consumed in fifteen minutes. Both love freedom and independence, leading a wandering carefree lifestyle in pursuit of their dreams. They bring up their four children, Jeannette, her brother Brian, and her two sisters, to face adversity head-on.

Living in a caravan, Jeannette is badly burnt when cooking sausages for herself when she was just four years old. The children live in poverty and neglect. Rex Walls squanders all the money on drink and gambling, and there is no money left for meals. The children find only magarine and sugar in the fridge and resort to stealing food in school and looking for food in trash cans. The family lead a nomadic life, camping in the desert, sleeping in cardboard boxes. When they find a run-down house to live in, it has no flushing toilet or insulation, and Jeannette is th only one who makes a half-hearted attempt at home improvement.

Despite the incredibly hard life as a child, Jeannette worte the book as a tribute to her parents. She was the closest in the family to her father, who affectionately called her "Mountain Goat" for her sure-footedness in life, borne out of adversity. Her relationship with her father is the most touching part of the story. Her father teaches the children many delightful things. They learn geology by collecting rocks in the desert, and astronomy by gazing up at night at the clear desert sky. Having no money to buy his children Christmas presents, Rex Walls brings them out on a clear starry night, and lets each child claim his/her own start as a present. The good times with her father do not last long. Rex Walls is an alcoholic and a gambler, he offered Jeannette to the winner at a pool table in a drunken mood. Jeannette stops believing in his "Glass Castle": a solar-powered dream home he was going to build for the family.

Eventually Jeannette leaves home and makes a life for herself in New York. Meanwhile her parents live a hand-to-mouth existence in the streets, rooting in dumpsters for food. Jeannette saves enough to attend college while working part-time. Unfortunately she runs short of funds in the last semester and may have to drop out. Miraculously her father comes up with the $1000 for her: he won it in poker games. Knowing how hard the lives of her parents are, Jeannette finds it hard to accept. However Rex Walls insists that his daughter is not going to drop out of college.

In this story we see not just how poverty and adversity was forced upon the children, but also how the parents taught their children to believe in themselves, and how they tried to love their children in their own way.

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